Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Finance (Senator Gallagher) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today relating to immigration detention.

There is no higher duty of government than to protect the citizens of Australia. Sadly, we see yet again—and we've seen it since the High Court's decision last year—a government asleep at the wheel when it comes to these important issues of national security that go directly to protecting the citizens of Australia in the circumstances where criminal detainees have been released. Yes, there was a High Court decision. We on this side all understand that. But we also saw, when that decision was handed down, a government that was like a deer in the headlights—a government which did not know what to do and which did nothing for day after day after day following that High Court decision. It didn't seem capable of making a decision.

Ministers got up in the other place and said, 'There's nothing we can do.' Then, following interventions from the opposition—in particular the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Peter Dutton—the government realised there was something they could do and introduced legislation. They then said that the legislation was the absolute best it could be. After having a look at it, key opposition shadow ministers and the Leader of the Opposition once more suggested changes to that bill to strengthen it. The government's bill—the bill that couldn't be improved—suddenly, six amendments later, was improved. Yet we still have a government asleep at the wheel, not fulfilling its principal obligation to protect the people of Australia.

Let me read you the police bulletin that came out: 'Police have arrested a man on 28 February following two incidents in Richmond on 27 February 2024, where a woman was allegedly assaulted and another woman allegedly stalked.' It goes on to say, 'Victorian police can confirm the man is one of the detainees recently released following the High Court ruling.' We learnt during estimates and we have learnt in this place that the government has not put in any applications—not one—for re-detention of those detainees. Documents tabled in the Senate earlier reveal that 37 of the 149 criminals released into the community were sex offenders. Six of those who have been released have been arrested and charged with breaching visa conditions. Another 18 have been charged by state and territory police. So, sadly, what we have seen in the last 24 hours is not an isolated case. It is a repeated pattern of behaviour, and we have a government that seems incapable of taking decisive action in this space. It is incapable of taking decisive action to protect the people of Australia, to fulfil its first and principal obligation as a government.

Instead, we have a government that has spent the last 18 months focused on things that don't help or protect the people of Australia. We have a government that has been incapable of dealing with a range of issues that are confronting the people of Australia. Here we have them clearly failing to address even very simple questions asked by shadow ministers in this place. They were incapable of answering the simplest of questions that any minister worth their salt should be able to answer. That is either because they don't know the answer, which is shameful, or they don't want to say the number. They don't want to say the number of former detainees who have been arrested in this country. That is a great shame.